Stanford Cardinal cruises past Cal Bears 80-69

BERKELEY -- Cal had made its move on rival Stanford, cutting an 18-point deficit to six by halftime, and Cardinal coach Johnny Dawkins wondered how his players would answer.

They responded with a show of toughness, refusing to let Cal any closer than five points on the way to an 80-69 win in front of 9,115 fans at Haas Pavilion that tightens the Pac-12 standings.

"When Cal made the run to close, that's hard to withstand," Dawkins said. "I wondered, where's my team? I'm going to find out about us.

"I found out our guys have a lot of substance."

A loss would have dropped the Cardinal (15-7, 6-4 Pac-12) into eighth place. Instead, Stanford moves even with Cal (15-8, 6-4) and Colorado in a three-way tie for third, one-half game back of idle UCLA.

Four days removed from an upset of then-unbeaten and No. 1 Arizona, the Bears have now wrapped four defeats around that high-profile victory. Asked if he could explain why, Cal's David Kravish said, "I don't know. It's frustrating. We've got to figure that out."

Coach Mike Montgomery said it's not complicated.

"If we play hard, play well, we can beat anybody," he said. "If we don't, we can get beat by anybody."

The Bears fought back from a 38-20 hole to make it 42-36 by halftime and trailed just 52-47 when the roof caved in.

They scored just five points over their next 15 possessions, shooting 1 for 13 over a span of nearly 10 minutes.

When Anthony Brown converted a layup and free throw to cap a 17-5 run with 3:52 remaining, Stanford's lead was 69-52. The rest was free throws.

"It's a great step for us that we went through some adversity," Brown said. "We wanted to come out in the second half and take the game possession by possession. That's what we did."

Stanford has beaten Cal three of their past four meetings, including the past two seasons in Berkeley. Montgomery said there's a common theme.

"They have been more aggressive than us on many occasions the last few years, and I think they were again," he said. "They're very physical, and we didn't handle that very well."

Dwight Powell shot just 5 for 17, but led Stanford with 22 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. Chasson Randle scored 19 points on his 21st birthday, and Brown had 16 points.

Stanford shot 28 for 35 from the free throw line and had fewer than 10 turnovers (nine) for the sixth time in its past eight games.

Justin Cobbs, who made the game-winning shot to topple Arizona, had 24 points but also five of Cal's 13 turnovers. Wallace scored a career-high 21 points.

Elsewhere, the Bears struggled. Starters Richard Solomon and Jordan Mathews and reserve Jabari Bird combined to shoot 2 for 18, as the Bears finished at 41 percent. "It seemed like it was a lot worse than that," Montgomery said.

Cal junior guard Ricky Kreklow, who had missed the previous 11 games with a broken hand, had three rebounds and a pair of assists in nine minutes off the bench.

Cal used a 16-4 closing run to pull within 42-36 at the half. Cobbs, who scored 12 of those points, hit a 3-pointer at the horn to get the Bears within six points.

Powell was the best player on the floor early, leading Stanford to a 38-20 lead. During the game's first 13﻿1/2 minutes, he had 12 points, four rebounds and four assists.